Dwight Hottle

Caught in May prespawn.

One of my buddies had a 21" from Erie & I measured & weighed it at 7-1 lbs.

I have had a few epic road trips over the years. For largemouth my most epic trip was my first visit to lake Baccarac in Mexico. One morning I was fishing by myself with my guide. We anchored up on a deep water spot so we were casting to deep water around 20'-25' deep & retrieving uphill the whole way back to the boat. My first fish to start the day was a scorable 7+lb fish. As the morning progressed they kept getting bigger. I ended up with a 43.5lb bag for 5 fish with three over nine lbs. The biggest was 9.5lbs. I lost one fish when she jumped near the boat throwing the swimbait. She would have gone an easy 9-10lbs. All this before lunch. My other epic road trip was fishing for smallies on lake Erie. I was a late bloomer when it came to boat ownership. I bought my first boat when I was in my middle fifties. A buddy & I decided to make the trip from NE Ohio to Presque Isle bay in Pennsylvania as the boats maiden trip. At the time my PB smallie was just under 5 lbs. We fished for two days over a May weekend. We both broke our PB several times that weekend on the my new boat. Talk about beginners luck. I caught two smallies over 5lbs and my first six pounder. We fished rapala husky jerks deep divers almost exclusively. That weekend convinced me to move to PA so I could spend more time fishing for smallies chasing trophies.

I'm thinking you will do it again. Congrats.

Good luck with the scan. Your definitely moving in the right direction.

Your correct on the spawning. In FL they start as early as late NOV and continue through the winter months. The cold fronts that migrate down contribute to the start & stop activity.

Bass in Florida are the just like bass in Ohio. So take what ever you like to use at home. Spinner baits, soft plastics & swimbaits, topwater hard & soft baits. jerkbaits, crankbaits etc. Just make sure you have some weedless baits to use if there isn't much open water.

I also got my PB steelhead & biggest lake Erie lake trout using the same technique. It's funny because both steelies & lake trout usually like fast retrieves or changing speed to trigger bites.

I prefer to fish faster techniques but will occasionally slow it down. My most success fishing slowly has been dead sticking a jerkbait placed in a rod holder while drifting. It's pretty easy to do & not boring because you can be casting or long lining another jerkbait working it as you prefer. Just keep an eye on the rod holder rod & when it loads up your in business. Very effective presentation for multiple species on the great lakes. Lots of six pound smallies caught with this technique.

Welcome to BR. Your fishing a world class fishery.

All the certified scales in the world won't help with an IGFA record if you weigh the fish in the boat. IGFA requires that the fish be weighed on land not in the boat. The reasoning behind this is a bouncing boat doesn't give a reliable reading.

You can call J & S and find out if they have dockage combined with accommodations. We have put in there before but never stayed there overnight.

The old Roland Martin marina (now MaryAnns) on the the south end has what your looking for at different price levels for accommodations.

I throw a lot of 1/2 oz to 1 oz jerk baits. I utilize a mh moderate action with braid and a lmh extra fast action with mono/flouro.

The commentators hit the nail on the head last night. When OSU is highly ranked [#1] they play so so. But when they are the major underdog they can be extremely dangerous. They play much better when they have a chip on their shoulder.

Sweet revenge for OSU. Coach Dabo should have kept his mouth shut instead of disrespecting the Bucs.

My New Years resolution is to forget 2020.

Mike sometimes the biggest fish are caught when your available to fish. My best months for smallies were always April & May for trophies. Large mouth have been November & December.

Just tell them your a kid at heart.

Looks like a new PB. Congrats.

I don't pretend to be an expert about scales. But maybe the + or - discrepancy on an above 20lb weight is an ounce or slightly more. 2 ounces is a lot on a weight of one pound but not so much on a weight over 20 lbs. 0.125 versus 0.00625

I understand your logic & don't disagree with it but in defense of the IGFA's rule for fish under 25lbs an old record must be beaten by a 2oz minimum. I have always felt this was in place to allow for weighing discrepancies between scales & changing technologies. In other words don't let a less than 2 ounce differential decide who gets the record. If you beat me by half a pound for big fish in a tournament I accept it & don't have any bad feelings. But if you beat me by one or two ounces my mind says maybe your scale was reading more generously than mine. It raises doubt as to who was the real winner. Maybe if read on the same scale both fish were the same weight? Maybe the flopping fish weighed differently than the the fish that wasn't flopping? Scales are excepted for accuracy for records but there is a + or - tolerance level of difference. The 2 ounce rule helps to eliminate that difference.

Sweet!

Maybe reconsider your approach if it doesn’t work out. Try vertical dropshot & vertical jigging with a spoon, blade or jig. Staying vertical still snags occasionally but a lot less than horizontal dragging.

My first bass probably about 1.5 lbs was caught on a cane pole with a bobber & baited with a red worm back in the 1950's.